Message to the Community

Since we announced this Kickstarter campaign we have seen more support from our community than we had ever hoped for. Along with this support has come a host of a new exciting opportunities that will make the game better than we envisioned. As a result, we have chosen to temporarily take down the Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding campaigns on both Kickstarter and our own website on Thursday, June 6.

This doesn’t mean we are going away -- far from it. We’ll be re-launching the Kickstarter in just a few short weeks with a reveal of these exciting new developments.

As we’re closing the current Kickstarter campaign not a single dime from this campaign will be removed from supporters’ accounts and everyone from our website’s crowdfunding campaign will receive full refunds via PayPal. As we re-tool our campaign and continue development, the forums on our site will remain open and active and any interested fans can still join the ‘Order of the Unseen’ to see our progress and join in the fun of creating content for the game themselves.

We want to thank everyone who has participated, volunteered, and spoken up to support us. You are our community and we value you more than you know. Stay tuned and we’ll be back soon!

Comments

Glad to see you proactively restarted this. ED was easily my favourite game of its generation, and yet I never wanted a sequel as I knew it couldn't live up to the memory. You had enough evidence to prove me wrong but it was clear from the start the goal and the audience would not meet.

Make sure you have everything in place for the restart before pulling the trigger - and try to aim as low as possible to get a decent product out. The numbers just felt wrong compared to others projects on a similar scale.
Episodic puts me off too, but not if its effectively a whole game that you can choose to buy as chunks.

Sucks that this happened but will definitely pledge for the future relaunch. Just make sure next time you include other platforms such as the PS3 and 360...they have by far the largest userbase so I'd think that will help when it comes to funding...

The entire chapters thing was really confusing. Either have a Kickstarter to fund the entire game (and release it as a complete game). Or have a smaller Kickstarter with a goal of just funding chapter 1. Don't bring future chapters into it. If the kickstarter is not funding them, don't bring them into it. If the Kickstarter IS funding them, just release it as one complete game.

Now if we can get a digital version of Eternal Darkness as an add on (for pc or wii-u) would be awesome sauce, I sold my Gamecube and all games with it a long time ago =\ But if not I'll still be back to pledge again, my love for survival/psychological horror demands it.

I think this is a good move. It's been so frustrating to watch the campaign fail to take off the way it deserves to--and I truly mean that, it deserves the success. We've all seen less exciting and ambitious crowd funding projects (featuring far less talent) succeed handily and in short order. If you guys can retool this project and promote it in the right way, I think you have a good shot of meeting your goal. You've got my pledge in any case.

I hope you guys have more success on the relaunch. I know I had alot of friends who want to see a sequal to Eternal Darkness, but were totally turned off by the rumours of the development history of some previous titles. Not all of them are in the position to spot 100$ just because they believe in the necessity of the project itself.

I hope you guys succesfully manage to clear the air, so as to make the second kicktstarter in a few weeks the success it deserves to be. You can count on my repeated pledge then!

Yeah. I think a lot of people who would have backed this didn't because they saw the numbers and said "there's no way they're going to reach that lofty goal" even though you might have if they all had pledged. I know a bunch of people who really loved Eternal Darkness and would die to see another game in the series, but they probably didn't know about this campaign (or that it was by the same people). Good luck, and keep us informed!

Superbacker

I must say that I approve. I was going to suggest re-launching the campaign. I've noticed a few games that didn't get funded at first but rejigged their campaign and after two or three attempts, they got funded. You've clearly got the community here and the support of people's hearts. If you can make the relevant adjustments to the campaign and run it better next time then it should do really well :).

Superbacker

This makes sense, the thousands of us who pledged directly to your site day one - pre-kickstarter when it was assumed by us there wasn't going to be a kickstarter - weren't helping the goal here. Funding was just too split. Will be eagerly awaiting an update from here telling me I can re-pledge, and look forward to see how you handle the criticisms of the episodic format vs simply buying a standard complete game.

If these "new exciting opportunities" include official publisher support and/or backing then I hope you can still deliver an experience with 100% creative control which is unbound by intervention and devoid of platform exclusivity.

@Koshinator, Bernard main problem aren't refund but that many people who could back project on kickstarter are backing it through paypal and becouse of that project seem less atractibe for new backers, is less popular, most likely to be unsuccessful, for example if they get 300k on paypal and 1 milion on kickstarter, project on kickstarter (with same goal as now) would still fail and they wouldn't get any money from it

Superbacker

Superbacker

I'm glad this is being pulled for a re-launch, as it stands I don't think this goal would have been met and I am very excited for the game! My only request would be for more platforms as I have neither listed, but wanted to support the game. I was just planning on borrowing someone else's PC.

@Bernhard Fey - Some people don't have access to amazon payments for Kickstarter payments, but having a paypal option outside of kickstarter is problematical if the Kickstarter goal is not met (since no money changes hands if the KS project fails to meet the goals). Most KS projects that also have external paypal options don't open these options until the main goal is met - to avoid problems like having to refund all the paypal donations.

I'm sorry that we won't be making the initial goal, but I'm SO glad to hear that this isn't the end, and I'll be waiting to pledge again when you re-offer. In the meantime, I'll be in the Ordinem de Non Visis!

I feel relieved that you guys are regrouping and pleased that the forums will remain open. A more concentrated representation of how many we stand and how much we have will go a long way when we return and I say "we" because I definitely will.

Thank you PG and I can't wait to hear whatever you can let us know about this new rally.

Superbacker

I think this is a good move. I am totally stoked for this game, but the initial launch seemed to have been under over-intense media scrutiny, and I'm sure this accounts for at least part of the slow build in pledges. Honestly, I saw far more "Denis Dyack will ruin this game" smear campaigns than "New Eternal Darkness!" positive media coverage. I hope that whatever you have in store for the relaunch does its job, because I really want to see this project happen.
If I was a pledge on Kickstarter, what's the process I have to follow to join the Order?

Ok guys, wish you all the best and I'm both excited and unsettled about what this exactly means and hope, you will really be back soon with great news about the future of this project. Keep up the good work!

For sure second try will be better. It almost always is. You lerned a lot by now about kickstarter. I don't want to be harsh but I hope you won't make the same mistake (which I adressed few times) and won't paypal untill kickstarter project is 100% funded.